Harry let out a groan and sent her a tired look as he let himself fall heavily on a nearby stool.
"Please not you too, Hannah. I've had enough of that with the twins already."
"All right, all right. But you'll have to get used to it at one point."
"Remind me again why I let Katie talk me into making this whole military-like hierarchy thing again?"
"Because while everyone in the DA respects you enough to follow your orders, the adults we recruit might object if we don't make it clear you're the one in charge. And it would become more complicated to just call you "Captain" if we ever manage to have more than one ship." She explained patiently, not looking up from the job application she was reading.
"Merlin forbid this whole thing stays between us... Hermione and Lee seem determined to turn this into a whole fleet. Still no news of the Creevy?"
Colin and Denis had been pulled from Hogwarts after the end of term this summer. They'd told their parents about Voldemort and the growing anti-Muggleborn stance of the Ministry. What the brothers hadn't expected was their decision to move to America to protect them. It hadn't stopped them from being part of the crew though.
"Not yet. I've been going through some of the applications sent by Clarissa in the meantime."
"Ms. Edgecombe, right? She's been helping out with the recruitment?"
That did prompt Hannah to look up from her work and raise an eyebrow at him.
"Well, someone had the bright idea of imposing a screening process with draconian background checks. With the Muggle-borns getting fired left and right, we're getting more people answering the recruitment ad each day. And it's not like managing the shop takes her much time anyway since we're barely doing any sales."
Harry knew that, out of the entire crew, he was asking the most out of her. Especially since she and Ms. Edgecombe were doing the work of a much bigger team until they could get the first recruits to help. He did what he could to assist her when he had the time but that was precisely what he sorely lacked lately. The dark circles beneath her eyes mirroring his own told him she did too.
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he sank a bit more on the stool's padding.
"I know it's a lot. But we have to be careful. This ship is possibly the greatest discovery ever made in human history. The Ministry is already filled to the brim with Death Eaters and sympathisers by now, and they're already snooping around the shop. Imagine what they could do if they got in and took over the ship."
"Sounds a bit paranoid. I know we have to stay secret but not everyone is out to get us."
"Maybe not but... You remember the defence professor, two years ago?"
"Creepy Moody? I still have nightmares of his eye." Her hand stilled for a moment, as a cold shiver went down her spine, before moving again to continue her work.
"Turned out he wasn't the real Mad eye Moody after all. A Death Eater kidnapped him and took his place before he even came to Hogwarts. We didn't find out until after he managed to set up my kidnapping during the third task. The real Moody spent the year in a trunk."
Hannah's quill stilled once more and even in the faint light, Harry could see the blood drain from her face.
"That's..."
She opened and closed her mouth several times, but her words kept failing her. It took a moment before she could gather herself and colours returned to her.
"Alright... I'll do what I can."
"...Thanks, Hannah."
Well done Harry. Got an O in your "How to kill the mood" class? Not everyone is used to murderers in disguise living next to them for months.
They sat there awkwardly for a while, the silence only broken by the grating of a quill on parchment as Hannah continued her work.
After a while, Harry couldn't take the heavy atmosphere anymore. He looked up behind him to the two round muggle clocks displaying different times had been hung on the wall, just above the main console. Above each of them, the words "London" and "Salem" had been written in black.
"Still, they're quite late... Should we call them?"The change of subject seemed to do the trick as Hannah's tense posture relaxed and she looked at him like an older sister would their younger sibling with their hand in the cookie jar.
"I'm sure they're just busy. They haven't found a way to leave Ilvermorny yet so they still have to be careful when they want to call. They can't huddle in a toilet stall every time."
The two brothers had been tasked with finding a place where they could open another shop. Once Hannah recruited and trained some new members, one of them would be sent overseas to help out and sign for everything.
Even though he felt a bit guilty about it, Harry was honestly relieved the two brothers would be away for a while. As much as he had come to like Colin over the years, he hadn't got to know Denis outside of the DA.
While he was relieved they got out of the country before the war blew up, Harry was glad they wouldn't be sneaking around taking pictures anymore. Sure, Colin had toned it down with the years and Dennis had never been as bad as his brother was at his age but they'd never really stopped.
"Merlin, I hope so." He muttered under his breath. "What have you been working on lately?" Harry asked.
"Aside from these? Madam Pomfrey agreed to teach Susan and Dean about healing when she isn't too busy. I gave them a room in the lower section to turn into the potion lab and infirmary they wanted. They should start setting up everything tomorrow."
"Good. I can't imagine she'd be happy if we continued to show up with burns and wounds we can't explain."
The idea had come after one too many accidents last year while testing modifications for the suits. There was no trained healer on board and those who graduated couldn't just go to the infirmary anymore. Like so many other things lately, they needed to learn how to do it themselves.